D&D 5E Wild Shape & Hit Dice

[Paraxis]

I never even thought of this before seeing the Sage Advice post here.

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/09/05/can-wild-shaped-druid-use-hit-dice-after-short-rest/

Why does a wild shaped druid get the beast’s Hit Dice? Can they be spent at the end of a short rest?

Yes

— Mike Mearls

And from the PHB.

When you transform, you assume the beast's hit points and Hit Dice.

So I understand that his answer is right, and the only reason to assume the beasts hit dice is so you can spend them, I honestly just never thought of it that way for some reason.

Being able to short rest and spend the beasts hit dice to heal instead of your own just makes moon druids all that more tough.

Moon druids are like onions they have layers.

Am I alone in not seeing this before?

 

[Staffan]

Sure, but you should only be able to spend the beast's HD on the beast's hit points. You couldn't go to half hp in humanoid form, turn into a bear, and then spend the bear's HD to recover your humanoid hit points.

 

[Jaelommiss]

If you are spending hit dice, you are taking a short rest*. If you are taking a short rest, you recover wild shape charges. I don't see a problem with this as long as, as mentioned above, they only apply to the animal form's HP.

*excluding houserules or gaps in my memory

 

[Staffan]

Also, I would say that unless the DM has changed the definition of short rest, you need to be at least 4th level to do this trick. You can stay in beast form for up to 1 hour per 2 levels, and a short rest takes one hour. Assuming you didn't change shape right at the start of the rest, you'd need a duration of more than 1 hour, which means 2 hours, which means at least 4th level.

 

[Jester David]

It's powerful, but not that much more powerful as it doesn't let you heal during combat. Basically, it lets you top off your hp if manage to rest while wild shaped. So you can go into the next combat with the same hp, letting you get the most of your wild shapes. It's a little like getting an extra wild shape out of the deal. Kinda. Because you could still roll poor and not receive much healing.